Just started biting

We've had our double yellow headed Rosie, who I was told is about 30 years old, for about 6 months and she has been nothing but a joy until now. She gave me the nastiest bite yesterday and has been nothing but aggressive ever since.

A little background:

- She's in a large cage - approx 4' x 3' x 30"
- I open the top of her cage and the front door every morning and she goes in and out as she pleases until either bed time or if I leave the house.
- I'm feeding her Roudybush pellets and a high quality seed mix along with fresh vegetables and sprouts
- She has always stepped up beautifully and I get her off of her cage several times every day
- She sings and talks and appears to be happy

What has changed:

For the past 3 days I started taking her away from her cage and putting her on a small perch in our bedroom in the morning while I'm getting ready for the day. We sing and talk and she seemed to be having a great time. Yesterday when I went to get her off of her perch to take her back to her cage she latched onto my finger (nasty bite) which totally shocked me. I somehow managed to stay calm and she finally let go, she stepped up onto the small perch and I put her back on her cage where she's been ever since. Now whenever I go close to her cage she runs to where I am and lunges at me. Something definitely upset her and I'm at a total loss as to what to do get her to settle down. Please help.....

She could very well be in breeding mode right now. You don't say where you are located, but I know for a fact that many Amazon breeder within the Southern US are "expecting".

Are you certain that Rosie is a girl? Males are "usually" nastier than the girls during breeding season, but even some girls can become quite moody.

If at all possible, try and leave her for a couple of days. I'm sure she'll calm down again IF this is hormonal based.

It sounds a bit like that she is being territorial. I'm not very sure why this happened suddenly, her diet seems fine. Or is it the breeding reason in your country?

Maybe try clicker and target training to rebuild your trust with her or just give her some time and see how she goes. Hopefully other members will give you other tips.

And website like birdtricks or goodbirdinc would have some good advice for you

Hope this helped

We're in the Southwest. I'm not certain that she's a girl, the family that I got her from said she was and I didn't question it because it really didn't matter to me.

I have no choice but to leave her because, to be perfectly honest, after the nasty bite I got yesterday I'm a little afraid of her at the moment.

Funny that you mentioned that it might be hormonal because I had lunch with my 93 year old Mom today and her 88 year old boyfriend suggested that it might be "that time of the month", I love that guy!!

I would be afraid of Ozzie if he gave me a nasty bite too, but he never did. Give her some time to see how she goes. Sit near her cage, talk to her, sing to her, hope she would be back to normal soon.

I think Wendy hit the nail on the head ,sounds more like hormonal aggression to me. It should pass soon enough.

Lucille said:

Funny that you mentioned that it might be hormonal because I had lunch with my 93 year old Mom today and her 88 year old boyfriend suggested that it might be "that time of the month", I love that guy!!

Click to expand...

ROFLMAO. My kind of people, LOL.

Please don't let Rosie catch on that you are now afraid of her, as she will then certainly take advantage of her newly found "terrorizing ability".

This, too, shall pass.

I understand they can punch a nasty bite, but hopefully once your finger is all healed up, so have her hormones.

I sure hope all of you are right and it's just a hormone thing. I'll give her a couple of more days and see how she reacts to me and I will definitely try not to let her know that I'm a little fearful. I'll keep you posted and thanks to everyone for your advice!!

Could it be that she quickly learned to enjoy the perch away from her cage, and on the 3rd day she didn't want to go back to her cage, so she nailed you?

Here's some pages that may be of help.
Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Respecting the Bite
Good Bird Inc Parrot Training Talk: Help! My Parrot Wont Step Up! (new blog!!!)
A ?Bird Attacking? Question « Lara Joseph
Natural Encounters, Inc.
Living With Parrots Cage Free: Bite


I would suggest to start target training her from within the cage. Get her to touch a stick/bamboo kebob/empty pen (any long object that can be placed near the bird without the chance of your fingers getting bitten and also something that she is not afraid of) and reward her. Teach her to target/station on various places within her cage before you even open the door.

Once she becomes accustomed to being targeted, you can then work on targeting her outside of the cage. This helps if you have perches on the outside of the cage, a perch on the swing out door, or a gym near the cage that she can easily access.


The main goal of all of this??? DON'T GET BITTEN!!! I know, easier said than done, but you need to learn how to read her body language and try to avoid getting bitten. After all, the only bite that can't be rewarded is the one that doesn't occur.

MonicaMc thank you for the links to the pages, what a wealth of information.

Rosie seems to be more relaxed this morning, she's not all puffed up with her tail feathers fanned out and she's not running towards me and lunging at me when I approach her cage. I'll watch her today and maybe approach her this afternoon and see what her reaction is.

Best of luck! Hope you are able to make some progress with her to get back to better behavior!

You could also try changing things up for her, move her cage, change the routine, etc. Make her more dependent on you. Get her out of her comfort zone.

Yay, success!! I've now gotten her to step up and hang out with me twice without any problems....looks like you all were probably "right on" with the hormone theory, thank you so much!! Also thank you henpecked for suggesting moving her cage or changing her routine, I'll remember that for sure as she does not like for her cage to be moved.

Glad things are good.If they feel like they're in cintrol then it;s harder to work with them. Be the leader, they're happy to be a flock member and just need someone in to take charge. Good luck and feel free to contact me anytrime.

Round 2 started this morning....not that you need all of the details but I'm going to tell you anyway . Rosie had gotten off of her cage and when I went to get her and put her back on her perch in her cage she nailed me again . This time I tried to get her to step up on my left hand because she had gotten my right one last time and it still hasn't healed. Well, she latched on and wouldn't let go, I tried to offer her something with my right hand to get her to let go and she nailed that one . She finally let go and started her strutting around all puffed up with her tail fanned out, obviously upset so I left her alone. After several hours she seemed to have calmed down but when I went to give her fresh water she literally jumped off of her cage and nailed my arm and drew blood through my warmup . So it's back to time out .

Now, how in the heck am I supposed to act like I'm not afraid of her. If she comes after me I can't ignore her cause I really don't want to get bitten again. Maybe I should wear a pair of gloves until my wounds heal to prevent her getting me again in the same places.

Honestly, for now, if you can't handle her outside of the cage, I would recommend leaving her inside the cage.

While inside her cage, teach her to target and station on different perches. If need be, use something like a spoon/measuring spoon to give her treats so she has no access to your fingers.


Once she is reliably targeting and stationing within the cage, then you can target and station her outside of the cage.

MonicaMc I agree! I opened up her cage this morning only because she came to me last night and everything seemed fine but I guess it wasn't. I'll work on targeting and stationing and see how we progress. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Make her do without you. Get the message across that you won't be her friend when she bites.Be the leader and take charge of your interactions.

Lucille, don't be lulled into a false sense of security with her on again off again good behavior, because breeding season for Amazon and can go on for six months.

As the others have said, it probably is hormones driving this new behavior.

I might be inclined to just back off of the one on one activity/interaction for a couple of months, at least.....continue with talking to her and everything else, except trying to pick her up or give her scritches. Teaching her to stick perch could be helpful, but if she heads down the stick towards you, I'd put her down or back in her cage.

In the wild, 'zons will try to run off all competition for nesting places. Charging, flaring & biting are all methods used to run off the competition.

You may want to talk to your vet about the possibility of using an avian birth control medication to calm her down.

Good luck